Righting the ship...

I was waiting to say anything it until I was at least 3% into the black on my Roth IRA, but I am now officially Back in Black (by 5%)! I have had trouble the last six months finding a profitable portfolio and wanted to readjust into some safe value minded stocks and ETF's that should be good for the long run.

Key sales: STP, PBD, PNCL, Polaris Global Value Fund

• STP and the entire solar market started to fall after a big markup; I wanted to keep this for the long term but selling at this time still allowed for me to collect some profits. I still think Suntech is the Toyota of the solar market and along with Sunpower are the best of breed if you are looking to find a long term solar investment.
• PBD fell based on that same big solar put back. I got out at $27.45 a share, but later I got back in $25.62 a share (now at $29.70 a share). I know that this ETF is getting lumped in with the other solar stocks in investors minds, but as I have stated before in my first evaluation of this ETF, it is the best of all available alternative energy technologies in the world not just the US. The best technologies being windmills. This is great long term ETF that is in my opinion the best and safest alternative energy play.
• PNCL may be a good play some time, even right now, but I am out. It is a suggestion out of a magazine that I thought, "Hey, this makes sense" and bought shares without my usual research. Pinnacle is basically a small airline partnered with Northwest Airlines and others to take care of some of the lesser puddle jumping locations in the states. It made sense until one day I remembered this is one of the industries that tied to gasoline charges and then they made a purchase of another small airline that, low and behold, has a lot of unforeseen debt. Bad call by me.
• The Polaris Global Value Fund is a formerly well liked, low expense mutual fund that typically invests in global value rated small cap businesses. Historically small cap value businesses don't do well in rough economies and then takes off when the economy turns back into a bull market. Well I bought this fund in a bull market and then it has slowly been leaking profits ever sense. I may purchase this again, but my money is currently better stored in PWV.

Key purchases: BEZ, PXE, PWV, PBD

• BEZ was written up in this post a few weeks back and has already helped my portfolio greatly. I still like this company in this economy and for the longterm for the same Buffet'esce reasons as I have listed before and feel that is still in a "buy" stage. Wait for another couple of pull back days; it has been on a tear again. I would buy anything below the $34 range.
• PXE is a stock that I have owned for over a year now and I decided to add more. It is the Powershares Dynamic Energy Exploration & Production Portfolio and it makes a whole lot of sense to just keep adding more and more of this ETF. I am a firm believer in alternative energy and fuels, but currently gas is what makes the world go round. Spend some time in checking this ETF's top five stocks and you will see several of the price explosion stocks over the past year. This ETF is going to continue to keep growing for at least the next three years, so at almost any price it will continue to gain value. I am going to keep purchasing it on bad days for some time.
• PWV is Powershares Dynamic Large Cap Value Portfolio and Lipper just loves it. It has a five star rating over the past three year in four categories and a four star rating for the expense category. It is built up of value minded large cap companies, so it should be tough enough to weather and grow in this economy. Oh, and it has been cheap recently, shares a fairly good dividend at 2.44%, and in a growing economy should take off. If it follows its past three years of data it will beat the S&P's growth by 5% to 10%. It is safer than a mutual fund and has a much better potential upside. I am buying as long as it is below $21 a share.
• PBD for the same reasons listed above.

We will see: MLHR, FTO

• MLHR is a great stock, has a bunch of cash on hand, caters to upscale customers, P/E of 10, 1.5% yield, and is consistently showing increasing profits in quarterly reports. Herman Miller furniture is high quality and a good product, but everyone seems to be staying away from it. I have amassed a lot of this stock as I think it is still a great company in bad times. It is one Kramer or SmartMoney recommendation away from taking off I think, but for now I am holding my breath.
• FTO is another great stock that I don't understand. It's stock performance is closely tie to the overall refinery market, but Frontier keeps recording record profit, P/E of 6.5, lots of cash on hand, and well seems cheap. I may buy a little bit more because I think this is ready to explode soon.

What I do well at in my opinion is doing research and finding value minded stocks and ETF's and my current Roth portfolio reflects this. I suck at selling at times when my stocks are still profitable. I need to start adhering by some rules of when to get out, but need some ideas. When I figure out my plan, I will share it some more here, but I tell you what it feels great to be back in black, especially in this economy.

Last thought: Buy PXE on off days. Oil is king for some time.